Breaking Point

Nina was lying on her bed with her eyes close and her mind clear. A vision of her sister popped into her head and she cringed. She didn't hate her sister, no, she loathed her. Tina was her older sister and was very popular in school. It was her sister's fault for the way she was now.

It was on an Easter morning when Nina had found her pet cat crushed by a tree branch. She had brought it to her sister for help, but her sister had gotten her mother and said that she had killed the animal.

To say that her mother was out of it was an understatement. Her mother, Tami, was a superstitious and narcissist. When she saw Nina with the dead cat, she had grabbed Tina and shut Nina outside for three days. Days later, Tami took her to what she called a "Doctor's Office" and had left her there.

The so called "Doctor's Office" was an asylum. The room she stayed in was dark and padded. This would be the room she would live in for six years. The treatment she went through was scaring with shock therapy, injection of different drugs, and other experiments. The only light that came was ever on was the row of light in the main hallway that lead to the outside office. The lights were dim and a yellowish color illuminated the moldy green brick floor and nothing else.

During her six years in the asylum she had changed rapidly. She wasn't insane per say, but she knew she wasn't in her right mind. She didn't know if it was the electric shock, the random drug experiments, the lack of human contact. All she knew is that the other half of her, the dark side of her, had lost her morality complex. The thing that made her feels happiness, sadness, and most importantly, guilt. Those feeling meant nothing to her anymore. It was like one of the doctors said, "You can always ignore your conscience."

It was her aunt, Mary, who had taken her out of the asylum. Tami had died of some unknown illness while Nina was gone. Tina had told Mary about where she was and had rushed to come free her. Nina was taken out of her dark, padded room and her straightjacket was taken off. She had walked down the dark hallway into the outer office she had only seen once.

Mary was standing near the exit with a smile on her face. "Hello there, Kari."

Nina just blinked. She had changed her name in the asylum. "My name is Nina."

Mary was confused, yet she didn't question it. "I'm sorry. I meant to say Nina. Are you ready to leave?" She said with a small smile.

Nina looked straight ahead and walked away from her aunt without answering. She was in no mood for her pity. She walked out of the asylum and didn't look back. Not because she didn't want to, but because she didn't feel any need to. While her aunt drove, Nina could hear her muttering phases like, "How could she do this?" and "Her daughter, her own daughter!"

They arrived to Mary's house in a few hours. Her house was a baby-blue and two-story tall. When they entered the house, Tina was on the couch, reading a beauty magazine. She turned and looked at the both of them. "So, cat-killer is back, is she?"

Nina stared at her sister. Tina had changed since she was twelve. Her hair had been straighten and dyed a honey-blond. She had on fake eyelashes, red lipstick, and fake nails. She was just like Tami, only she wasn't superstitious. She was rude and hostile. Nina knew it was going to be tough living with her.

Mary was angered at Tina's behavior. "Tina! Show some respect. Nina has been through a lot over the years…"

Tina cut her off. "Nina? Who's Nina? Her name is Kari."

Nina spoke up for the first time. "My name is Nina."

"Well, that's just perfect! First, you take all the attention and now you're taking my name. That's just great." Tina threw the magazine down and stormed out of the room.

Mary was fuming. Before she could explain anything to Nina, Nina had taken her bags upstairs to her room and closed the door.

Month after she had moved in, she had been enrolled into the same high school that Tina was. Tina wasn't pleased and made Nina promise that she wouldn't say anything about her past nor that they were even related. At school, she was called names; people would pull on her afro, and several other things.

In the gym room, Nina could hear the cheerleaders planning to become nice to her so that they can prank her at the pep-rally, and Tina was the one who was going to set it up. Nina fell for it, not because she didn't know about it, but because she needed it to happen. She needed the humiliation to drive her over the edge. To do the things she wanted to do, she had to lose the bit of morality that seemed to be holding her back.

Nina agreed to be on the cheerleading squad for a day. She wore a black and white turtleneck with a black skirt and a dark blue bow. The other girls wore the same outfit, but they put raincoats over them. She knew all of the dance steps and every move. The last performance was the pyramid. When the cheer was over, a bucket full of warm tar was pour on her head and she was thrown down to the wooden gym floor. She could hear the crowd laughing at her as a bag of feathers rained down upon her. The crowd laughed even harder when she tried to get up and she fell on her face.

Nina held her head down while she was walking out of the gym. Even though tears were streaming down her cheeks, a twisted grin was plastered on her face. She had gone over the edge and beyond. Kari was no more. Nina waited for this day to come. As she left school, she began to put her plan into place.

Tina sighed as she left school. Her sister had not come back to school since the pep-rally. She had gotten in trouble with her aunt, so for punishment, she was to watch her sister while she was out of town. "Great, I can watch the pet killer." She spat. She was eighteen! Instead of having a good time, she had to go home and babysit.

Tina was half a block away from home, when she felt something hard hit her in the back of her head. The last thing she saw was a dark figure looming over her before she blacked out.

She awoke in a daze. Her head hurt and she couldn't move. Wherever she was, it had an echo and a dim light. "Hello? Is anyone there?"

The dim light became brighter as Tina's eyes opened fully. She found that she was strap into the leather cuffs that cut into her wrists and ankles. Her heart began to race and she struggled on what seem to be a metal table that had been propped in the upright position.

Her eyes scanned the place until she saw Kari standing in the middle of the room. "Kari? Where are we?"

Nina smiled. "We're in a basement silly."

"You little freak! Get me out of here." Tina said in a hostile voice.

"Oh, come now. Let's not call people names. After all, I'm the one that should be mad after that little stunt you pulled."

"She couldn't be still mad at that, could she?" Tina thought. "That was over two months ago!" Tina began to sweat. "Listen, I'm sorry if I made you mad with that joke, but please! Get me out of here!"

Nina laughed. "I'm not mad. No, not at all! I just wanted to spend time with my big sister. Nothing's wrong with that, right?" She touched Tina's hair. "By the way, I love your blond hair. It's so straight and silk-like. My hair is so thick and curly. Oh sister, I've always been given your hand-me-down, you don't mind me taking your hair, do you?" She took a knife from off the tray and cut off Tina's hair, almost scrapping her scalp. "Of course you don't"

Tears ran down Tina's eyes as Nina wore her blond hair around her neck like a scarf. "Hey sister, do I look pretty and popular now?"

Tina looked at her sister with hate in her eyes. "NO! YOU'RE A SICK FREAK! NOW GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

Nina frowned. "I thought I said no name calling." Then she smiled. "I have a way to cure that!" She went over to the metal tray and grabbed a syringe. Tina gasp and she started to shake her head. "Please wait!" Tina screamed.

Nina slowly put down the gag and the needle and looked at Tina. "What's up sis?"

Tina cried. "I'm so sorry. I promise if you let me go, I'll make all the girls on the cheerleading squad apologies to you. Please," Tina's cries turned into ragged sobs, "Just let me go."

Nina giggled. "Oh, don't worry. Two of the girls already apologized"

Tina looked up with a shimmer of hope. "Really? You mean it?"

Nina nodded. "Of course they did! I even have a tape." She ran over to the corner of the room and took out a TV with a VCR, and the tape started. It began with a girl with red hair tied to a tree. Tina knew this girl was Mimi, the leader of the squad. She had a scared look on her face. A pack of wolves came into the frame baring their teeth.

Tina looked away. "No. Please Kari, no."

Nina stifled her. "Quiet! This is the best part."

All of a sudden, the wolves were let off of their leashes and attacked Mimi. Tina heard her friend's cries of sadness and pain as her flesh were ripped from her bones. The last screen was her body lying in a pool of her own blood while chunks of her muscles floated beside her.

Another film began to play, this time Nina was in the video. Tina noticed another familiar face. Her friend, Nicole, was tied up in a chair with a mouth ring placed in her mouth and her neck was secure by the back of the chair. She then saw Nina with a thick plastic tube, a funnel, and a jar full of spiders. She pushed the tube into Nicole's throat, and added the funnel. She then dumped the giant jar of spiders into Nicole's mouth. Nicole's eyes had grown big and tears came falling from her face from the pain of the force-feeding. When she had eaten the whole jar of spiders, she had gotten a bucket of water and dumped it down the tube as well to get the spiders, in Nicole's now swollen stomach, excited and to make them move around. Nicole had passed out after the water was poured. Nina then grabbed a scalpel and slowly cut into the stomach. She jumped back and watched as a mixture of water, blood, spiders, and intestine spilled onto the floor.

Nina turned the tape off and turned to her sister, who was now too shocked to even say anything. "See? They said sorry. They were saying it throughout the entire video."

Tina started to cry hysterically. "Why? Why are you doing this?"

Nina smile faded. "You know why."

Tina started to get angry. "No! I don't know why. What have I ever done to you?"

Nina laughed. "Don't you remember, dear sister? Six years ago? When I killed our cat?" Mom sent me away to an asylum. Well, this is my thank-you present. I'm happy to play with you again, sister. The other girl's death was quick and easy, but you?" She picked up a power drill and four screws. "I'm going to have fun with you."

She drilled the screws into Tina's wrists and feet. Tina screams filled the room.

"Now, let's do something about your mouth." Nina said. She grabbed Tina's tongue and injected the syringe into her tongue. "Don't worry." She said. "Inside this syringe is a liquid that will make your tongue numb."

Tina felt her tongue sting a little then it turned numb. Nina took a scalpel and cut out half of her tongue. She then grabbed a car battery and attached the wires to the screws. She turned on the switch that made Tina's body jolt with electricity. When Nina turned the switch off, she noticed that Tina wasn't moving. She got another syringe and injected adrenalin into Tina's heart.

Tina gasped for breath. Her eyes were red, swollen, and full of tears. She used all of her strength to speak with only half a tongue "K-Kari?"

"What is it?" Nina asked.

"I want to go home." She pleaded in a mumble.

"Yeah, I understand that feeling." Nina said. "I wanted to go home when I was in an asylum. Every day I would yell and scream for them to let me go." She started to grin. "Then I realized that I couldn't give up! I had to struggle through and so will you."

Tina held her head down in defeat. She couldn't fight anymore. "Oh come on, Tina! Don't be sad. I'll put a smile on my face!"

She went over to the cart and brought over a syringe and numbed Tina's lips. She then brought over a sewing needle and black thread. After waiting for a while for the numbness to take effect, Nina sewed the lips together in a cross-stitch pattern and made Tina's mouth smile.

"Like I said, you're going to struggle like I have. So, I'm going to let you go."

Tina's head shot up in disbelief. She started at her sister's face with her eyes full of hope.

Nina smiled and picked up a meat cleaver. She cut off Tina's arms and legs and watched her fall to the floor.

Tina groaned loudly and fell on her face. She could see her sister putting something white on her fresh wounds.

Nina looked into her sister eyes. "Don't worry. These are just bandages. Can't let you bleed out too soon!" She said. "You can be set free. All you need to do is crawl to that door." She pointed to a door with an exit sign on it.

Tina was in a fetal position. She was in too much pain to move. Nina sighed in frustration. "Look, it isn't that hard. If I could do it in a straightjacket, you can do it. Just wiggle those little limbs that you still have."

Tina wobbled to the door with a trail of blood streaking behind her. She had gotten her head out of the door, when a blade came down and decapitated her.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Nina said. "It looks like you were too slow. Oh well." She picked up her sister's head. "At least I had fun playing with you."

She stared into Tina's lifeless eyes and laughed. Then, for some reason, she stopped. "No." She said. "No! It can't be! I couldn't have done this." She threw her sister's head down and cried. Her sister was right. She was a killer and a freak.

"Whose fault was that?" She thought. "It was Tina's fault that you were put in that prison. It was her fault that you were humiliated. Tina deserved everything that happened to her."

Nina wiped her tears away. She had cleaned up the tools and hid everything. She had taken the body and had used the spare parts in pastries that she sold as a hobby, getting rid of the evidences little by little.

She felt no guilt for what she's done, nor any empathy for her sister. Nina was still lying on her bed, spinning her sister's head on her finger like a basketball. She hear rumbling in her basement where a brunet cheerleader was tied up with big eyes looking at her. "Oh joy... I get another playmate."